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Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition is an easy-to-manage solution that integrates the benefits of media processing (for voice and video calling and mobility) and unified messaging on a single appliance. Consolidating these applications on a single server creates a cost-effective solution that is simple to set up, manage, and use, thereby lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) and providing a smooth migration from older, outdated telephony systems to unified communications.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition is designed to deliver enterprise-level unified communications and collaboration performance to your employees to help you serve your customers and achieve your long-term business goals. Designed for medium-sized organizations with smaller IT staffs, the solution provides investment protection with the capacity to grow to up to 500 employees and 20 total sites (19 remote sites).

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition Version 7.1 incorporates many capabilities specifically designed to meet the needs of medium-sized businesses for improved collaboration across the value chain.

Product Overview

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition consists of the following foundational elements:

Based on the Cisco Unified Communications appliance platform model, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition supports the world-class Cisco Unified Communications Manager media processing (voice and video calling and mobility) engine and Cisco Unity Connection unified messaging application. The applications are preloaded on the highly reliable one-rack unit (1RU) Cisco media convergence server platform. The software preloaded on the server consists of a single firmware image that includes the underlying server operating system as well as the media processing and unified messaging applications. By using a common set of system management and serviceability tools across the operating system and the applications, the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition platform provides a consistent interface to streamline the ongoing management and operation of the system.

In addition to the standard call-processing features, Cisco Unified Communications Manager software includes features that improve the productivity of mobile employees when they are out of the office. Called Cisco Unified Mobility, this feature set provides a single business voice mailbox and a single-number-reach application that intelligently manages, filters, routes, and connects calls between a worker's IP desk phone and mobile cellular or home phone.

Cisco Unity Connection 7.1 is the unified messaging application in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition. It transparently integrates messaging and voice-recognition functions with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition to provide continuous global access to calls and messages. Cisco Unity Connection advanced convergence-based communication services allow you to use natural-language voice commands to place calls or listen to messages in hands-free mode and to check voice messages from your desktop, either through integration with your email inbox or by using a web browser. Cisco Unity Connection also provides robust Automated-Attendant functions, including intelligent routing for incoming calls and easily customizable call-screening and message-notification options.

Features and Benefits

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition inherits all the core features and functions of the Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection applications. Some of these core capabilities are highlighted here. For more detail, please refer to:

Medium-sized businesses can save money, reduce power consumption, and use less space by reducing the number of communications servers required. Deploying fewer servers saves money on electricity and cooling and saves rack space in the equipment room, wiring closet, or data center. In addition to saving money, using less equipment and power also supports a company's green initiatives and goals for protecting the environment.

Call Control

In addition to standard telephony features such as call coverage, call transfer, call waiting, hold, conference, park, and pickup, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition delivers a powerful set of telephony features for medium-sized businesses: for instance, intercom with whisper page, do not disturb, hold reversion, immediate divert to voicemail, and hunt groups. It also offers:

• Cisco Unified IP Phone 7931G multi button lighted line key support: In addition to the full portfolio of Cisco Unified IP Phones, Cisco Unified IP Communicator, and Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition supports the Cisco Unified IP Phone 7931G. This phone provides functions that are commonly needed in small and medium-sized business (SMB) environments. It provides 24 lighted line keys and 4 interactive softkeys that guide you through call features and functions. In addition, it provides hard hold, redial, and transfer keys to facilitate simple and rapid call handling.

• Call Admission Control (CAC): CAC helps ensure that voice quality of service (QoS) is maintained across constricted WAN links, and it automatically diverts calls to alternate public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) routes when WAN bandwidth is not available. A web interface to the configuration database allows remote device and system configuration. HTML-based online help is available for users and administrators. Now medium-sized businesses can save significant costs by using their IP WAN connections for their site-to-site calling instead of using more expensive PSTN trunks.

• Powerful Cisco Unified Mobility capabilities: Cisco Unified Mobility provides powerful capabilities previously available only to larger organizations. Cisco Unified Mobility provides the capability to have up to four devices ring when a call comes into a user's IP phone. Whether you are working from home or in a hotel room while traveling for business, your calls can now follow you anywhere. Cisco Unified Communications Manager also supports dual-mode devices, benefiting customers who have mobile employees who need to move between campus wireless and external cellular network environments. These devices can manually hand calls from a cellular Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network to an IEEE 802.11-based wireless LAN. Wireless phone support is also included for Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7921G and 7925G models.

Voice Messaging

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition includes a powerful voice-messaging system, Cisco Unity Connection, which provides many advanced capabilities that can be customized to increase individual and team productivity. Employees can personalize communications options and interact with the system to manage calls and messages in the way that is most comfortable and convenient for them.

The flexible user interface makes messaging more efficient for both intensive and occasional voicemail users. For example, the telephone user interface (TUI) and touchtone mappings for each user can be customized to make migration from traditional voicemail systems much easier.

The new visual message locator allows users to use the display of the Cisco Unified IP Phone to view, search for, and sort voice messages. Using softkeys on the phone, the user can view and play back all messages, new messages, and messages from a specific subscriber or outside caller.

• Personal Web administration: Cisco Unity Connection allows users to customize their personal settings from a web browser using the Cisco Unity Connection Assistant, a dynamic interface in the browser-based Cisco Personal Communications Assistant (PCA). Users can quickly and easily establish or change personal settings such as their voicemail options, security codes, personal distribution lists, and message-delivery options. Users can also use the web administration interface to define and manage personal call-transfer rules to customize the delivery of incoming calls based on caller, time of day, or calendar status.

• Web access to voicemail (optional): The optional Cisco Unity Connection Inbox, a message-access console, provides a dedicated voicemail inbox on the desktop. With the Cisco Unity Connection Inbox, you can immediately visually prioritize your voice messages by username or caller ID, date, subject, or other field and, with a single click, play the message that you want to hear directly on your PC. In addition, the Cisco Unity Connection Inbox provides a natural, easy-to-use visual interface for creating, replying to, and forwarding voice messages and for managing and using voicemail distribution lists.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition Version 7.1 adds numerous capabilities to the product. Some of the main features follow:

• Support for the following new telephony features has been added to enhance the user experience: directed call pickup, do-not-disturb call reject and call-forward-all loop prevention.

• Users can now browse their Microsoft Outlook calendar, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace® meetings, or Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express meetings by simply calling into the voicemail system and performing the following functions:

– Send a voicemail to the organizer or to all participants of an event

• Users who employ a Microsoft Outlook email client to review their voice messages now can play their voicemail messages through an integrated player enabled by a plug-in instead of having to launch a media player.

• The import-export tool has been updated to allow administrators to export the complete set of Cisco Unified Communications Manager data, making it easier to copy the configuration onto another device for testing and troubleshooting.

• Currently Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition supports up to 20 Cisco Unified SRST sites using a centralized call-processing model. The new release introduces support for a multisite distributed call-processing deployment model that allows connection of an autonomous Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition system to other autonomous Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition sites or autonomous Cisco Unified Communications Manager clusters. Connection is through inter cluster or SIP trunks or to Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express sites with H.323 or SIP trunks, in a manner that is consistent with the maximum number of voice gateways and trunks supported in a Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition System.

Application and phone software licenses are enforced. The system manages the maximum number of devices that can be provisioned.

• Each device (Cisco Unified IP Phone, desktop-client-based soft phones, third-party devices, and video devices) provisioned in the system corresponds to a number of device-license units (DLUs), depending on its capabilities; the total number of units is managed by the Cisco Unified Communications Manager application to determine capacity.

• You must purchase DLUs to cover the total number of devices connected to your Cisco Unified Communications Manager media processing application.

• A user-based licensing model is available through Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing Business Edition licenses, and DLUs are included in these licenses to cover each user's access to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager media processing application.

Ordering Information

The Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition offering is for new installations only. However, a migration path is supported that provides investment protection to a standalone enterprise-class deployment of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection for a business that grows beyond the 500-user capacity of Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition.

You can now order Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition in two ways: by the traditional method or as part of a new workspace bundle.

To order, select the top-level part number (CMBE-WRKSP-BDL) and then select from the options in Table 2.

Table 2. Ordering Information: Workspace Bundle Method

Product Number

Description

MCS7828I4-K9-WL

CUCMBE, 7828-I4 appliance, CUWL BE 50 Users

MCS7828H3-K9-WL

CUCMBE, 7828-H3 appliance, CUWL BE 50 Users

In addition to the initial 50 users included in the workspace bundle, you can add users with an add-on part number (CUCM-BE-WL), which supplies additional Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing Business Edition licenses.

You can order Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition by the traditional method using a single top-level part number. The top-level part number allows you to configure the entire system, including hardware, software, and user licenses.

Organizations can select one of the base packages. The Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition base package bundles the Cisco MCS 7828 Unified Communications Manager Business Edition Appliance with a preloaded software suite and seat licenses for the first 50 users. The seat licenses included in the base package cover the server licenses, voice mailboxes, and ports needed for the initial system. Note that these seat licenses do not cover phone or additional endpoint device licenses.

Organizations can then add more users by selecting the appropriate quantities of user packages, available in 10- or 50-seat increments, up to the total number of users. The add-on user licenses cover the server licenses, mailboxes, and ports and are cumulative.

You can add device licenses for phones and other messaging options for advanced users under the top-level part number.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition is available only on Cisco MCS 7828 Media Convergence Servers.

This product can be licensed as part of the Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing program. Please visit
http://www.cisco.com/go/workspace_licensing for more information about Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing Business Edition, and to determine whether Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing is right for you.

To place an order, contact your local Cisco representative; visit the
Cisco Partner Locator tool on the Cisco website
Partner Locator - Cisco Systems, and search on Advanced Unified Communications or on Cisco Authorized Business Edition Reseller to find a certified unified communications partner in your local area.

Cisco Unified Communications Services

Cisco Unified Communications Services allows you to accelerate cost savings and productivity gains associated with deploying a secure, resilient Cisco Unified Communications Solution on your network. Delivered by Cisco and our certified partners, our portfolio of deployment and technical support services is based on proven methodologies for unifying voice, video, data, and mobile applications on fixed and mobile networks. Our unique lifecycle approach to these services can enhance your technology experience to enable powerful new ways to collaborate with co-workers, partners, and customers across any workspace to accelerate business advantage.

For more information about Cisco's complete solution offering for small and medium-sized businesses, please visit:
http://www.cisco.com/go/smb.

Cisco channel partners and resellers looking for ordering information should refer to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition ordering guide available with log-in to the Cisco partner site at:
http://www.cisco.com/go/partner.